In early December 2018, I ventured out into Banff National Park and decided my morning stop would be at Vermilion Lakes to catch the sunrise over Mount Rundle. The lake was frozen across the middle, and open water revealed itself and reached my shoreline.

A perimeter of frost and a clear coat of new ice lined the water’s edge by my feet. As I waited for the sun and emerging light, I began to focus on photographing the frost that sprouted up like little white trees upon the delicate ice.

After a few snapshots of the frost, I glanced up, and to my surprise, a wolf was trotting across the lake in plain view, traversing the thicker ice across the middle of the lake. As I scrambled to re-adjust the settings on my camera, I watched as the fleeting opportunity passed and the wolf faded out of sight. I hope this photo finally answers my question about myself at that moment... Why did I photograph that frost?